Martin Rowe and Rob Fagg were fortunate to finish the third round of the Chinese National Rally Championship based in Kaiyang last weekend after an encounter with a water buffalo!

The pair had enjoyed a two-test in their KST Ralliart Mitsubishi Evo 9, reporting it to be improved from the previous event and with this round taking place at lower altitude they had more power at their disposal.

The event got underway last Friday with a single super special after which Manxies dominated the leaderboard; David Higgins and his Welsh co-driver Ieuan Thomas led in a similar Evo 9, 1.1 seconds up on Rowe and Fagg.

It was an early start for the crews on Saturday and an 80km drive from Parc Ferme to the stages in darkness. Four stages totalling 80km lay ahead and it was not long before the KST crew experienced their first problem. With an ill handling car

 Rowe was doing his best to fight it around the tight twisty stage and limit time loss to their rivals. The pair were hampered by the problem for most the day.

Following four long stages Rowe and Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation supported Fagg maintained second, ending the day just 16.3 seconds behind Finn Juha Salo and 8.3 seconds ahead of third placed Karamjit Singh. However the dramas really began after the final test.

Martin and Rob celebrate their 2nd place by spraying the champagene at the Kaiyang finish.
(photo courtesy of Steve Tsang)
 

“On the road section back to parc ferme a buffalo jumped into the road from a side path.” commented Rob. “We had no time to react and hit it, smashing the windscreen, bonnet, wing and worst of all, the radiator; and we had to keep stopping to top it up with water.’

They managed to nurse the car back to the overnight halt but there was no service until the following morning, another 50 miles away! 

After a nervous drive the pair did reach the service and were able to make repairs to keep them in the event, but they did require an extra two minutes to do so and picked up a 20 second penalty for being late out of service dropping them to third place.

They soon regained second though as they went 18 seconds quicker than Karamjit on the first stage of the day, to give them a 6 second cushion. They would hold onto this position till the end of the day, finishing just over a minute down on Salo. Third place went to KST team-mate Luidong in a Subaru Impreza after Karamjit suffered a puncture on the last stage, this being enough to reward the KST Ralliart Team with 1^st place on this round.

“At the start of today we would have taken second so have to be happy” said Rob at the Kaiyang finish, “We wanted to push hard today and chase down Juha but after the incident with the buffalo I am glad to be at the finish. We both feel we could have challenged for the outright win but it was not to be. It’s great for the team though with Dong taking third, we now go into the last round to fight for the championship.”

Martin and Rob will return for the fourth and final round in November where team victory on that round will see the Championship come home to the KST team.

Media
29/09/2006